[PHOTO] Sutton Place to The Britt

In 2012, the Toronto Star's Susan Pigg reported on the conversion of the Sutton Place Hotel, one of the noteworthy hotels of the downtown core, into condos.

Lanterra, perhaps best-known for its development of highrise condos and the boutique Hotel St. Germain in the once-barren Maple Leaf Square area, plans to resurface and renovate what used to be Toronto’s palace to Hollywood stars.

This is just the latest sign that Toronto’s film epicentre has now completely shifted south to King St.: Last month Cresford Development announced it’s converting the site of nearby Bistro 990, the beloved restaurant of the stars, into condos as well.

While plans are still being finalized, Lanterra hopes to add about nine storeys to the 33-storey Sutton Place, convert its 400 hotel rooms into up to 600 condo units and widen the footprint of the building at Bay and Wellesley Sts.

Where limos used to pull up and unload their precious cargo under the glare of cameras during what would become the Toronto International Film Festival, Lanterra plans to add restaurants and retail space while retaining many of the trademark — if dated — charms of the Sutton Place’s grand lobby.

blogTO noted in March of this year that the builders have reached the stage of stripping the building of its old exterior. They're still there.

[BLOG] Some Tuesday links

• blogTO looks at the history of the Kingston Road.


• The Dragon's Gaze considers the birth of carbon planets.


• Language Log notes that a speaking parrot may well be used as evidence I an American court.


• The LRB Blog looks at the aftermath of Brexit.


• Marginal Revolution considers Brexit from the perspective of a Japan-style isolationism.


• Steve Munro looks at plans for the Downtown Relief Line.


• Peter Rukavina examines Stan Rogers' Barrett's Privateers.


• Understanding Society examines systems management as applied to the war on poverty.


• The Volokh Conspiracy takes issue with Posner's criticism of Scalia.


• Window on Eurasia warns that health care reform in Russia will undermine small communities.


• Arnold Zwicky looks at Chuck Tingle's Brexit porn.

[NEWS] Some Tuesday links

• Bloomberg looks at the European cities hoping to poach talent from London post-Brexit, notes central Europe's support for the European Union, looks at how Venezuelans are dealing with broken cars with the car industry gone, and looks at the United Kingdom's already substantial hit.


• Bloomberg View considers peace in Columbia, notes American infant mortality, looks at China's fears over Brexit and examines China's anti-corruption crackdown.


• CBC notes the substantial refugee population of Ukraine.


• The Inter Press Service wonders about the consequences of Brexit for the United Nations.


• MacLean's notes the beginning of the North American leaders' summit.


• National Geographic observes the impending end of the ivory trade of Hong Kong.


• The National Post looks at the Leave voters' regrets.


• Open Democracy looks at Scotland and also at the post-Brexit environment more generally.

[URBAN NOTE] "Exactly 346 people voted for Berlin to be renamed Kitchener"

The Waterloo Region Record's Jeff Outhit notes that, exactly one hundred years ago today in the middle of the First World War, the southwest Ontario city of Berlin had its name changed to Kitchener against the will of its inhabitants. (Via James Nicoll.)

Residents voted narrowly to change Berlin's name in the midst of the First World War to prove loyalty and stem the backlash against a city with deep German roots.

Canadian soldiers were battling Germany, dying amid distant thunder on the Western Front in Europe. Canada, consumed by anti-German sentiment, eyed Berlin darkly, uneasy about buying goods stamped Made in Berlin, suspicious of its young men who were reluctant to enlist.

It was the darkest time in the city's history. You can see the city on edge in a new exhibit by that name at the Waterloo Region Museum. It runs through December.

The space is laid out like a maze. That's meant to disorient you just as people would have felt in 1916. "We want people to feel confused," said Tom Reitz, museum manager.

The exhibit has what you might expect, relics and artifacts, and what you might not, modern podiums and touch screens to explain how the name change still resonates. There's film and art and sound and conflict.

There's the printing plate from the ballot that produced the new name. There's a napkin ring that might have been crafted out of a stolen, melted bust of Kaiser Wilhelm I, but probably wasn't. The Kaiser's ghost hovers above it all.

Reitz is from German stock. His great-grandfather immigrated as a carpenter and lived on Wilhelm Street in Berlin. He wonders: how did his ancestors feel about abandoning Berlin's name? Did they vote?

"What did they think of this?" he asks. The answer is lost to time.

[URBAN NOTE] "Pro-Brexit voters in port town fear for future in divided Britain"

The Toronto Star carries Rich Noack's Washington Post article looking at how pro-Brexit voters in a depressed port town in England are starting to reconsider.

After mass layoffs in the 1970s and ’80s, this once-vibrant port town in southeastern England lost much of its glory. Many stores are closed, and windows are broken. A shuttered guest house in the town’s centre is plastered with advertisements for instant cash loans. “Money matters,” one reads.

Tilbury is one of England’s poorest places — and one of its most Euroskeptic. More than 72 per cent of voters here and in surrounding Thurrock voted for Britain to leave the European Union in Thursday’s referendum. Few places voted more decisively.

But by Sunday, the initial excitement among some pro-Brexit voters had already started to disappear, making room for worries about what’s next for an increasingly divided Britain.

Some in this town of 12,000 have also begun to wonder whether they had been misled by politicians advocating to leave the E.U. amid a campaign marked by negativity on both sides.

“I was swayed by the rhetorics, but if I had thought this through, I would have voted to stay in. I would certainly do so now,” said Antony Kerin, 38, who was watching his daughter at a newly refurbished but empty playground.

[URBAN NOTE] "The Truth About SmartTrack"

Torontoist's Sean Marshall is scathing about the originality of John Tory's SmartTrack plan.

In 2014, then-mayoral candidate John Tory ran on a campaign of sound fiscal management, returning decorum to City Hall, and a curious new transit plan called SmartTrack, which promised “London-style” rapid transit from Mississauga to Markham. During the election campaign Tory claimed that the new rail service—53 kilometres long, costing $8 billion—would provide needed transit relief in just seven years, all on a TTC fare.

During campaign speeches, Tory called the plan “bold.” He also promised to build the Rob Ford-backed subway extension to Scarborough Centre, rather than return to the cheaper, funded light rail alternative that candidates Olivia Chow and David Soknacki were backing.

Of course, Tory won the election, and many Torontonians were looking forward to an era of competent governance, if not visionary leadership. But two years in, the costs of the Scarborough subway keep mounting, even if the number of stations kept shrinking (from three stations to one stop), and the scope of John Tory’s “bold” SmartTrack plan kept getting watered down.

With the recent provincial and municipal transit announcements on new GO Station locations, it’s now official: SmartTrack is nothing more than a brand name for transit projects that were already in the works. And the City of Toronto is stuck with some of the construction costs that would have been borne by the province.

[URBAN NOTE] "I’m a Scarborough Resident and I Don’t Want a Subway"

Torontoist features an article by guest contributor Vincent Puhakka, member of Scarborough Transit Action, writing against an increasingly uneconomic proposal for a Scarborough subway extension.

From the very beginning of Rob Ford’s single minded “subways, subways, subways” obsession (to call it a campaign would lend too much legitimacy to the position), the needs of Scarborough transit riders have been secondary to political games and misinformation about which transit modes work best to serve different trips and areas of our city.

As long term residents of Scarborough and avid TTC patrons, I have always been mystified as to why these self-styled, fiscally responsible leaders would rather spend billions of dollars on a subway that will serve a tiny portion of the transit trips taken east of Victoria Park.

Tory, De Baeremaeker, and Duguid should know better. After all, the three claim to be transit supporters. They also have access to all of the information the rest of us do about the merits of a full LRT network. They know that a majority of transit riders in Scarborough are not heading downtown, making the small Bloor-Danforth Line extension to Scarborough Town Centre of little use to our area of the city.

These are facts that have been made public for years and are backed by our organization, Scarborough Transit Action. They’re also supported by the City’s chief planner, Jennifer Keesmaat, and a majority of citizens throughout Toronto, including in Scarborough. With this debate polarizing the city, I was cautiously pleased when subway supporters, backed by the mayor, seemed willing to compromise on their stance by agreeing to eliminate most stops on their pet project in order to fund the Scarborough-Malvern LRT, serving Eglinton East, Kingston Road, and the University of Toronto’s Scarborough campus—all major transit destinations and corridors ignored by the subway plan.

The announcement last week that costs for a one-stop “express” subway have ballooned by almost $1 billion, putting the compromise LRT at risk, was not enough to halt De Baeremaeker, Duguid, and Tory from clinging to their dreams of underground trains at the expense of all else. At this point, it’s becoming clear that these men do not care about reasonable transit planning. They definitely don’t care about Scarborough, no matter how loudly they claim otherwise. If they did, they would stop resorting to tired accusations of downtown elitists depriving hard-working Scarborough of its rightful subway. This is insulting to the intelligence of all Torontonians, and shows the low-level divisive politics being used to save a bloated project.

[URBAN NOTE] "Future waterfront access up for discussion at Scarborough Waterfront Project public me

The Scarborough Mirror reports on a meeting today in Scarborough concerning the Scarborough Waterfront Project, an access project on the Scarborough Bluffs that is controversial.

A meeting on a future connected Scarborough waterfront may see a clash between people who want a continuous trail through Scarborough and others who to want to preserve its natural shoreline areas.

The Toronto and Region Conservation Authority hosts a meeting on Tuesday, June 28 at Blessed Cardinal Newman Catholic High School, 100 Brimley Rd. South, to bring residents up to date on the Scarborough Waterfront Project. It kicks off with an open house at 5 p.m., presentation at 7 p.m. and Q&A at 7:45 p.m.

For now, the series of proposed green spaces between Bluffers Park and East Point Park is just being studied.

But Ron Moeser, a Scarborough East councillor, objects to a recommendation by TRCA staff to run the trail away from the shoreline through East Point Park.

He is asking his constituents to attend the meeting so they can support “a seamless trail system” he said his residents have always wanted along the water’s edge.